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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23542270">Working Title</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account'>orphan_account</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Gorillaz</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - High School, Breaking and Entering, Implied/Referenced Underage Drug Use, M/M, Murdoc is Latino, Noodle is 2D's step sister, Summer, Summer Bummer But There's Not Much Bummer, Underage Smoking, Unresolved Romantic Tension, weezer</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 15:48:07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,105</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23542270</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The summer is half over already, but Stu's best friend has just gotten back from a trip, and they've got the rest of the world ahead of them.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Murdoc Niccals &amp; Stuart "2D" Pot, Murdoc Niccals/Stuart "2D" Pot, Noodle &amp; Stuart "2D" Pot</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>44</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Working Title</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hey hi howdy! Second fic on here. This was written over the span of about four days. I listened to Weezer's White Album all throughout and I would highly recommend it for summer listening material.</p><p>I attempted to use proper Brit terminology, but let me know if there's stuff I can fix.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The summer heat has finally given in to the chill of the evening. The window is open and a cool breeze rustles the curtains, billowing them gently away from the sill. Stu, (sixteen, rising Lower, blue hair, and permanently hyphema-d eyes,) sits in his bed, with the blankets tossed onto the floor. He’s on his laptop, a busted up old Windows computer that Doc fixed up for him. They’d gotten it for about £10 at the thrift store in the city last year, and Stu and Doc had spent the previous summer getting it into working condition. The laptop is a sort of grayish black, with cartoonish faces and Stu’s tag scrawled across the back in colourful paint and sharpie. </p><p>Stu checks his clock. It’s eleven thirty, time to leave. He closes his laptop, gets out of bed. He straightens his jeans, which are too small but still rolled up at the bottom. His mum refuses to buy the jeans made for tall people so he’s got quite a bit of his skinny ankles sticking out. He changes out of his sweat-soaked tee and into a clean one, grabs his phone, runs a hand through his hair, and exits his bedroom. His mum is probably in bed by now, her late shifts at the hospital always tire her out. His stepdad believes in a more hands-off approach to Stu’s parenting, and doesn’t care when Stu leaves the house. He stops walking when he reaches the end of the hall, debating. His stepsister Mai (affectionately called Noodle by everyone she meets. Stu isn’t sure why, his stepdad had been calling her that since before he married Stu’s mum) requested to come along. She’s... eleven now? No, twelve, Stu thinks. Of course, Doc and Russ love her, think she’s a riot. The little demon has the two of them wrapped around her pinky finger.</p><p>Stu stands in front of Noodle’s door, debating. Eventually he gives in to his arguments against himself, and slowly opens the door. Noodle sits on her bed, wide awake, with the lights off. She’s playing some game on her 3DS, Stu doesn’t know what. The blue light of the screen shines on her chin and cheeks, giving her a bit of an eerie look.</p><p>“You coming Noods? I’m leaving now and I’m not gonna come back if you change your mind or something.” Noodle bounds out of bed, stuffing her DS into the pocket of the jacket she’s wearing.</p><p>“Of course I’m coming! I’ve gotta show Doc something in my <em> Pokémon </em> game. Plus, he promised me he’d bring back some of that candy from Spain this year.” Stu sighs. He had been half-hoping Noodle would have changed her mind. A pipe dream.</p><p>“Come on then.” Noodle smiles and slides her shoes on, a child-sized pair of black Chucks, constantly untied and unlaced to match Stu’s own. She drags him down the last few feet of the hall, sprints down the stairs, through the kitchen, into the laundry, and bursts into the garage, panting heavily. Stu catches his breath and slips out the side door, Noodle following right behind. </p><p>The night is lovely, the breeze just cool enough to be refreshing. The frogs in the pond down the street are croaking so loud Stu’d have thought they were right next door. The gravel of Stu’s driveway grinds under his feet as he crosses it, and then turns to cement when he reaches the road. </p><p>Noodle plucks leaves off their neighbour’s hedges as they walk, shredding them into coin-sized pieces. </p><p>Eventually they reach town, with its single overpriced grocer’s and delicious coffee shop. Stu hands Noodle a tenner and points her in the direction of the all-night bar, known to serve coke floats to cheeky children until late into the night.</p><p>“I want a few minutes to say hello to Doc first, okay? We’ll come get you in a bit. And remember-”</p><p>“Don’t let any shady drunk people talk to me, I know. Have fun with your boyfriend, and don’t abandon me here like you and Russ did a few weeks ago.” Noodle scolds, stuffing the tenner into her pocket and running off towards the bar. </p><p>“He’s not-” Noodle is gone before Stu can finish his sentence. Naturally. </p><p>These nightly excursions are a ritual summer occurrence, dating back to year eight, when Stu and Doc first became friends. Of course, they’d known each other since early primary school. It’s a small town, with only one real school of each level available. It’s hard not to know everyone by the time they reach secondary school. With Noodle gone, Stu walks the rest of the way to the grocer’s where Doc will be waiting. Again, this is a ritual by now. Every summer Doc spends July visiting his mum’s family in Spain, and the night they get back, Stu and Doc meet at the grocer’s to break in, nick ice creams, and catch up. It’s one of the best nights of the summer, usually.</p><p>Doc isn’t there when Stu finds himself in front of the grocer’s, so Stu pulls out his phone to shoot him a message. “<em>here yet? </em>” is all it says. Stu waits for Doc’s response, absently fiddling with the hem of his shirt. </p><p>His phone buzzes with a message, and Stu unlocks it. Doc has sent him a picture, no text. The picture is of Stu, leaning against the wall of the grocer’s, taken from a spot in the bushes to the left of the building. Stu walks over to the bushes and Doc springs out from behind them in a half-hearted attempt to scare Stu.</p><p>“Surprise!” Doc says as a way of greeting, “Did’ja miss me, idiot? I bet you did.”</p><p>“There’s only so much of Russ I can take before I start to lose my mind. He spent two hours yesterday telling me about taxidermy and how to keep animal skins from smelling. <em>Two hours! </em>” Stu groans, but then it hits him that Doc’s back, and they’ve got the next four weeks to get up to as much mischief as humanly possible. “But no, I didn’t miss you. Not a bit. How was Spain?” Doc scowls.</p><p>“A bore, as usual. Anita, my hot cousin, you know? With the tits and the hair? She’s engaged now. Total trophy guy, he’s like a golfer or something similarly dull. Spain itself was lovely though. We got there in time for the last few days of San Fermín, which I quite enjoyed. Where’s Noodle at? I’ve got candy for her.” Stu groans, and Doc grins at him. “She’s great, Stu, I dunno why you don’t like her.” Stu <em> did </em> like Noodle, honestly. She was fun, not too girly or anything. Good on her softball team, apparently.</p><p>“She’s down at Treehouse, I paid for her float so she’d get off my back for a bit. Don’t want the first few minutes of the <em> real </em> summer to be spent with her ‘round.” Doc grins and punches Stu’s shoulder, who stumbles with the force. Stu is tall, nearly a whole head taller than Doc, but Doc is dense, he’s got actual muscle mass. Stu is just skin and bones, really.</p><p>“Ooh Stu, you flatter me. You’ve had a whole month of summer already, that’s a half of the break, you know. Surely you didn’t just waste it away waiting for me to return?” </p><p>“I did, suck it up <em> madame</em>. Let’s go get our ice creams, I need some sugar.” Doc seems pleased with this, and strides ahead of Stu, hands in his pockets. He pulls out a busted old hotel card as the two boys wander round to the back door of the grocer’s. The ice cream chest is kept in the back room at night.</p><p>“You ever wonder why the ice creams are kept back here instead of in the store?” Doc asks, inserting the card into the seam between the locked door and the wall. He slides it up, and then down, slowly wiggling the card into the lock. “Like, it seems fishy to me. It’s real easy to get in you know, no alarms or anything.” With that, Doc gets the card through the lock and the handle of the door turns. He grins back at Stu, who makes an effort to look nonplussed. “Works like a charm, every time.”</p><p>“You’re not as funny as you think you are, Doc.” Doc scowls at Stu, before turning around and walking through the back room towards the ice cream chest.</p><p>“Well, I don’t know about that, but I’m sure as hell smarter than you are.” Stu follows Doc, peering down into the chest at well.</p><p>“Tell that to my eight-five last year.” He says, fishing a chocolate ice pop out of the ice box. This is a conversation they have often, often enough that it has lost any real anger behind it. It is, like so much else, ritual at this point. Doc is smart, like really smart. He’s good with computers, artificial intelligence and stuff. He’s trying to clone Noodle right now, apparently. Stu isn’t the brightest kid but he doesn’t mind. He’s not exactly planning on going to law school or anything. Despite all that, Stu averages about two marks better than Doc in just about every class, due to Doc’s complete disrespect for the school system.</p><p>“Grades are pointless, Stu. They’re just... just the world’s way of telling you your worth based on biased and stupid standards.” Doc says. Stu shrugs. He’s still proud of his eight-five.</p><p>Doc takes his ice cream from the ice box, an orange cream pop, and slides the glass top closed. Stu unwraps his ice pop and stuffs the wrapper in the pocket of his jeans that does not currently contain his phone. Doc does the same and they leave, the door to the back room automatically locking again behind them. </p><p>Doc takes a deep breath of nighttime air and looks up at the sky, grinning. </p><p>“Funny how you don’t realize how much you missed something until you get back, hey?” Doc nudges Stu, who shrugs, too focused on his ice pop to get philosophical. “You’re tons of fun today. Let’s go get Noodle, her candy is burning a hole in my pocket and I’m going to start eating it if I can’t foist it off on her. You can send her home after, I just gotta say hello to my favorite, I’m sure you understand.”</p><p>“I’m pretty sure you care more about Noodle than my stepdad does, and he’s her actual father. You’re a shite seventeen-year-old with two friends who hooks up with his dealer whenever he can convince her to-”</p><p>“Hey! That was one time! It was at a party, and Peecie’s hot, what can I say? It <em> was </em> rather lovely, too.” Doc grins. Peecie (originally P.C., her initials,) is about half the school’s pot dealer. She’s short, thin as rails with straight black hair and a scowl to match Doc’s. Stu wanted to date her for months in year nine, before he realized what a terrible idea that was, for a whole variety of reasons. </p><p>“It still happened, though. There’s no denying that.” Stu says, before tripping on a stone in the road. He stumbles and grabs onto Doc’s shoulder to avoid falling; his balance has always been terrible, especially after the car accidents in year eight. There were two of them, one right after another. They’d fucked up his eyes, mostly, but his balance was also permanently off afterwards. </p><p>“I’ll deny it if I want to, now come on. It’s getting late enough that Noodle shouldn’t be out much longer.” Doc says, walking up ahead towards Treehouse, the bar. Stu groans, regaining his balance, and takes advantage of his significantly longer stride to catch up to Doc quickly.</p><p>“Just adopt her already, heaven knows I’d love her out of my hair.” Stu enters Treehouse first, holding the door open for Doc behind him. Noodle is sitting at the bar, drinking the last of a coke float and playing on her 3DS again. When the door jingles she looks up and, spotting Stu and Doc, springs off her stool. She bounds towards Doc, who pats her awkwardly on the head as she hugs him.</p><p>“How was Spain?” Noodle asks as they exit Treehouse, holding tightly to the little bag of hard candies Doc gave her. Of course, her love of the candies is irrational, as similar ones can be purchased from the candy shop down the street from the grocer’s, but Noodle refuses to listen when Stu tries to tell her this.</p><p>“Gorgeous as always. My brother almost got arrested for drunk driving, predictably. I’m pretty sure Mum just about killed him, you know?” Doc ruffles Noodle’s hair as they walk towards his mum’s car, parked in the grocer’s car park. “You want a ride home, Noodle?” Noodle nods, too busy picking through her candies to respond in full.</p><p>“Oh! I got a shiny Clefairy in <em> Pokémon</em>, I was gonna show you.” Noodle doesn’t seem too upset by her inability to do so however, and hops cheerily into the back of Doc’s mum’s car when Stu opens the door for her. Stu slides into the passenger seat, rolling the window down before he even sits entirely down. The car is a convertible, a nice one, and Doc has the top down. Noodle sits high in her seat, letting the wind blow through her hair, and Stu feels half an urge to do the same. Instead, he peers into the centre console, observing the mess of belongings within. Some of them are obviously Doc’s--the well-used lighter, the half empty pack of cigarettes, the knotted earphones. Stu picks up the earphones and begins to untangle them, sliding the edge of his nail into any knots he can’t get otherwise. Doc pulls out of the car park, sliding the car into gear. It’s a short drive, just a few minutes, so none of them bother with seat belts.</p><p>The earphones are almost untangled when they reach Stu’s house. He gets out of the car to hug Noodle goodnight and tell her,</p><p>“Go to bed once you get in, it’s almost a quarter ‘til two, and mum’ll be able to tell if you’re up much later.” This is loosely true. In all likelihood Stu’s mum would not be able to tell. The flu had broken out in a few of the senior homes, which sent an influx of patients into Stu’s mum’s ward. She’s working pretty much around the clock.</p><p>“We’ll see about that whole sleeping thing, I’ve gotten behind on my show and I need to catch up so Al won’t spoil it for me.” Stu shakes his head and shoos Noodle inside. </p><p>Noodle safely inside, Stu gets back in the car. He finishes untangling the earphones, coils them, and returns them to their place in the centre console. Doc is driving them to the beach, about twenty minutes drive down the road from Stu’s house. Letting his hand slip from the wheel, Doc pulls out his phone. </p><p>“Hands on the wheel, Doc.” Stu says, taking Doc’s phone from him. He pulls up Doc’s Spotify and digs through playlists, looking for something good. “Weezer?”</p><p>“Sure, White Album?” Doc asks, handing Stu the cable to plug the phone into. Stu nods, plugging the phone in and pulling up Weezer’s White Album. He debates momentarily between playing it on shuffle and playing it in order, eventually settling on shuffle. The sound of <em> Wind in Our Sail </em>fills Doc’s car, and the two boys belt out the lyrics whenever they’re in an area with no people. The wind whips Stu’s hair away from his face, and they’re definitely going over the speed limit, but Stu couldn’t care less. He stands up in his seat, hands gripping the edge of the windshield.</p><p>“<em>We can do so many great things together</em>,” Doc half-sings, half-yells with the lyrics,</p><p>“<em>Together!</em>” Stu sings in response, thumping back into his seat with a laugh. Doc turns to look at him with a smile, and the wind is blowing his black hair away from his eyes but Stu can barely tell, the night is so dark. Something about this moment,--just the two of them blasting music late at night, the middle of summer--something about it feels <em> just right </em>, and Stu wishes to whatever higher powers may be out there that this feeling will last forever.</p><p>The shuffle manages to hit all of Stu’s favorites of the White Album: <em> Do You Wanna Get High?</em>, <em> Endless Bummer</em>, and <em> Fake Smiles and Nervous Laughter </em> all coming one after another. By the time they reach the beach Stu and Doc are windswept and exhilarated, both of them taking a moment to catch their breath in the car before running out onto the cold sand. Stu toes off his shoes and immediately walks down to the waterline, sticking a toe in the ocean to test the temperature,</p><p>“<em>Fuck </em> it’s cold. Doc, come here! Let’s wade for a bit.” Stu yells to Doc, who is digging something out of the centre console of the car. Stu turns to watch as Doc triumphantly holds his lighter and the busted pack of cigarettes up in the air, before bending down to slip his boots off and slide his jeans up to his calves. “Come on, I’m getting lonely over here.”</p><p>“I’m coming, one moment,” Doc runs down the beach to stand next to Stu, lighter and cigarettes still in hand. He walks into the water until it’s halfway to his calves without stopping, gasping when the cold hits him. “Oh, <em> man, </em> you weren’t kidding. Whooh.” Doc pulls out two cigarettes from the box with his teeth, then lights them with his other hand. He returns both the box and the lighter to his pocket, handing one of the lit cigarettes to Stu.</p><p>“Thanks,” Stu says, thumbing at the end of the cigarette before sticking it in his mouth. He sticks his hands in the pockets of his jeans, looking out over the water. It’s practically cloudless, and the moon is nearly glowing off the surface of the ocean. He looks at the stars, trying his best to remember the lesson he did on astronomy in primary school. He thinks he can spot Andromeda. </p><p>The air on the beach is different from the joyful energy in the car. It’s like everything has slowed to a cool night-air crawl. Stu’s stomach twinges, and he looks over at Doc.</p><p>Doc who is looking at him already. Just sort of staring. They lock eyes, and hold the contact. Stu’s throat is constricted. This shouldn’t feel so vulnerable, he’s known Doc forever. (That’s an excuse, he knows why it feels like this.)</p><p>Doc pulls the cigarette from his mouth and blows a cloud of smoke directly into Stu’s face.</p><p>“Oi!” Stu shouts, and the moment is lost. His eyes water, and he rubs them with a hand. Doc snickers and looks out over the water.</p><p>“Your jeans are going to get wet,” Doc says, looking down at the water at their feet. Stu is up to his ankles, the cuffs of his jeans sitting dangerously close to the water’s surface. Stu hums and rolls the jeans up further, until he’s got about half his shin out.Doc rolls his cigarette back and forth in his mouth before speaking again,</p><p>“Remember the Halloween party in year ten?” Doc asks. Stu chews on the inside of his cheek.</p><p>“How could I forget?” The party was a disaster. The year elevens snuck insane amounts of weed in, everyone got high off their asses. The truly ‘memorable’ part of the party was afterwards, though. Stu, with his decision making artificially impaired, had thought it a good idea to. To. Well, he had said some things to Doc. Things Doc probably already knew, but it was the principle of the thing. </p><p>Now they’re standing just nearer than they should, and Stu can feel the heat radiating off of Doc. It’s just cold enough outside that part of him wants to slide even a bit closer, never mind any reasonable social boundaries.</p><p>Stu flicks his used cigarette into the water and Doc follows suit, the two of them still just shy of standing shoulder-to-shoulder.</p><p>“It was a mess, wasn’t it? That Devon kid who hosted it, did she ever come back to school?” Doc asks.</p><p>“No, I don’t think so.” Stu looks up at the stars again, spotting Andromeda, and next to it Cassiopeia.</p><p>“What’re you looking at?” Doc says, leaning closer to Stu to approximate his viewpoint. Doc’s shoulders are nearly touching Stu’s chest, and he thinks he might die.</p><p>“The constellations. See, here’s Andromeda and Cassiopeia,” Stu points to the two constellations, “I dunno. I don’t really remember the others. Last time I looked at a star chart was probably year five, latest.”</p><p>“Mmm. No Gemini in the sky anymore?” Doc asks, looking up at the stars. They’re both Geminis, Stu born in late May, Doc in early June.</p><p>“Uhh...” Stu wracks his brain for any memory of Gemini’s schedule, “I think that it leaves the sky after June-ish. But here,” Stu points again, this time next to Cassiopeia, “If that’s Cassiopeia, then this is Perseus.” Doc looks where Stu is pointing, staring up at the stars.</p><p>Doc turns around, then seems to realize just how close he was standing to Stu. He takes a step backwards, soaking the bottom of his jeans.</p><p>“<em>Fuck! </em> That’s cold. Why is it so cold?” Doc groans, walking back to his place by Stu’s side. He stands just a little bit closer than he was standing before, and their shoulders are touching. Doc is radiating body heat. Stu praises the two A.M. darkness for hiding whatever embarrassing face he’s probably making.</p><p>“It’s the northern Atlantic, Doc. If you want warm water you should probably go live in L.A. or something.” Stu says, returning his hands to the pockets of his jeans.</p><p>“L.A. sounds nice, I'd like to live there some day. What do you say--you, me, Noodle, and Russ all fuck off to the old U.S. of A.? We could start a famous band or something.” Doc mimes strumming a guitar, “I’d make a good rockstar.”</p><p>“Oh as if. You’re too ugly, nobody wants to see your mug on their album covers.” Stu says, picking at the seam of his jeans pocket.</p><p>“We can’t all be you, pretty boy.” Doc says, continuing to strum his air guitar. “You’ll be our frontman, the face of the band. Of course Noodle and I are the lyrical geniuses, the minds behind the madness. And Russ is there because everyone needs a Russ.” </p><p>Stu hums, and blinks heavy eyes. He’s getting tired. He pulls out his phone, checking the time. Three-ten A.M. Doc leans over to look at the time as well, bracing himself on Stu’s arm. </p><p>He doesn’t let go when he leans back. </p><p>Stu can feel his stomach in his throat, caught between nerves and sleepy calm,</p><p>“Doc, it’s getting pretty late, I either need to head home or get some caffeine. I’m going to fall asleep on you otherwise.” he says. Doc shrugs. Stu reaches his arm up to rub his eyes, and lifts a foot out of the water. “I sort of forgot we were wading. My feet are going to be freezing.”</p><p>“Right. Yeah, that’s going to be... fun.” Doc lets go of Stu’s arm to stretch, cracking his back. Stu follows as Doc walks out of the water, still not quite sure what to be thinking. </p><p>Stu falls asleep on the drive home, so different from the way over. He wakes up to Doc shaking his shoulder, ‘<em> We’re here’ </em> his gaze says, and Stu nods, stands up from the car. Rubs his eyes. The street lamps cast Doc in a blurry orange light, reflecting off his dark hair. Him sitting there, on his mum’s car, in his leather jacket over an old hoodie with the warm night light shining on him, he looks like a picture. Stu feels his cheeks tingle, and he’s got goose pimples on his arms.</p><p>“It’s good to be back, Stu. Don’t get assaulted by some creepy teenage boy on your way home- oh wait.” Doc says, sniggering at his own joke.</p><p>Stu just smiles and shakes his head, leaning his weight on one leg.</p><p>“Here’s to the beginning of the real summer, hey?” Stu says. Doc nods, holds up an imaginary glass. Stu does the same.</p><p>Doc toasts, “Cheers. And let it never end!”</p>
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